Storm Rider
The Storm Riders are Emblem Darkhearts fought in the Land of Dragons/Valley of Peace campaign of "Kingdom Hearts II - An Empire of Dreams". They are powerful support bosses created from the hearts of ancient Chinese dragons by Maleficent and Warp Darkmatter to aid their respective contacts Shan Yu and Tai Lung in battle against the Keybearers. Story An Empire of Dreams The Storm Riders were originally powerful dragons that slept under the Tung-Shao pass that gave strength to Imperial China. However, during Taran and the Gang's visits to seal the world's keyhole and delve into the mysteries of the Dominion XIII, Maleficent turned one of the dragons into a Darkheart and sent it to help aid Shan Yu and his surviving Huns in attacking the Imperial City. The creature finally appeared when it seemed that Taran and the newly evolved Sailor Mercury, Fa Mulan, had overcome their warlord opponent only for the Storm Rider to save its master from falling to his death and serving as his mounted beast for the final part of the battle for China. In the end, Taran and his friends are able to slay the dragon and its Hun rider, returning peace to the Land of Dragons, and the Emperor rewards Mulan by letting her return to her home, though not before granting her gifts to show both her family and all of China what she had done to save them. Much later, during the Valley of Peace campaign, the freed Tai Lung makes a deal with the rogue Space Ranger Warp Darkmatter in exchange for the power to control the Darkhearts for his mission to finally become the Dragon Warrior. To help aid him in his quest, Darkmatter grants Tai Lung the use of the second Storm Rider known as the Hellfire Whirlwind as a guardian beast to protect him from enemy threats. Mulan finds out about this from the surviving guards at Chor-Gom Prison and is immediately sent by decree of the Emperor to defeat this threat and protect the true Dragon Warrior from Tai Lung's wrath. However, as Sailor Mercury, she is captured by a platoon of Sniper Storm-Troopers led by Warp's partner Boba Fett, and rescued by Po and the Furious Five, joining them and the Highwind Crew for one last showdown against the Darkheart and enraged warrior. Upon Tai Lung's defeat and the destruction of his monstrous steed, the weakened snow leopard begs Warp for more power, only for the agent to come to the conclusion that he isn't worth the trouble and promptly orders Boba Fett to shoot him in the head point blank. Appearance The Storm Rider is a large, blue dragon with a long, curled tail and twisted, yellow spikes lining its back. Its wings are actually long, five-fingered hands with ornate webbing between the fingers. Each finger sports a short, white claw and the webbing is decorated by a swirling pattern. The Darkheart's underside is lined by two rows of three gold cymbals. Its lower jaw is large, jagged, and yellow, its upper jaw is blue, and its eyes are glowing yellow with blue-green "eyebrows". White hair is visible around the Darkheart's eyes and mouth, and forms "tusks" on the sides of its mouth. The Storm Rider also has two bent, red horns on its head, its only vulnerable points. Its Darkheart emblem is on its chin. The second Storm Rider is virtually identical to its predecessor except it becomes predominantly brown and orange, its hair and fingers become black, its lower jaw becomes white, and the webbing between it fingers is now red and orange, as opposed to the original white and yellow. Attack Patterns *'Dive': Dives across the arena, avoidable only by the reaction command Slide. *'Thunder Wings': Shoots lightning bolts from its wingtips. *'Carpet Bombs': Flies across the arena, dropping bombs as it does. *'Thundaga Cannon': Creates two walls of electricity, charges up power with its horns, and then shoots a massive beam of lightning. The Storm Rider, as its name implies, wields the element of Thunder in its attacks. It can shoot lightning bolts from its wingtips and call lightning from the sky. Its most powerful attack is trapping opponents between two walls of electricity and shooting a large beam of thunder, causing massive damage on impact. Its only non-thunder attacks are dashing across the arena, carpeting it with bombs and spinning towards the party when they are on the ground. The carpet bomb attack can be easily predicted as the Darkheart always claps its cymbal feet together beforehand. The dash attack can be avoided and used advantageously with a reaction command. It may be wise to equip the party with Lightning-resist armor before heading out to battle the dragon. Once the battle is underway, Taran will start out on the Darkheart's back. Taran can choose to either attack the dragon's head directly, or attack the horns near the wings. If one chooses to attack and destroys both wings, Storm Rider will collapse on the ground and Taran will be able to unleash more powerful attacks without the risk of falling off. The Storm Rider will try and perform a barrel roll to shake Taran off (this becomes a double barrel roll later in the fight), counter this with the reaction command, which lets Taran stay on and keep attacking. Should Taran get knocked off the dragon's back, the giant Darkheart will begin attacking him. It generally floats over a corner of the palace courtyard before attacking. It can energize six lightning bolts with its wings and fling them at Taran; using Reflect is recommended as the bolts have homing capabilities. The Storm Rider can also dash across the courtyard, dropping a series of bombs on the party, and Taran should dodge it by running out of the way if possible. When Storm Rider gets low on health, it lands on the bridge on the southern side of the courtyard. Walls made of electricity form and close the party into a corridor directly in front of Storm Rider. The Darkheart then fires a massive beam of lightning down the corridor, dealing immense damage. Stay as close the side of the Storm Rider's wings to avoid damage. The Storm Rider will charge and fire two beams; during the second beam, lightning will strike horizontally across the electric walls at Taran's location, so keep moving along the corridor lengthwise to avoid these. If Taran and the party are on the ground, the dragon may start to spin slowly toward Taran. If this happens, run in front of it and use the Reaction Command Slide when it gets right next to Taran and then use the command Vertigo Toss to toss and strike him down to the ground. This also deals a good amount of damage. It stays stunned on the ground long enough for Taran and the party to deal major damage. Category:Villains Category:Henchmen Category:Monsters Category:Dragons Category:Airbenders Category:Pyrokinesis Users Category:Darkhearts Category:Dominion XIII Experiments Category:Half Member of The Hellfire Organization